Sunday, October 16, 2011

He stood there, shell shocked, with a thousand yard stareIn the last 48 hours he'd survived unspeakable horrors, but never left his stationNow, I needed to talk to him.I didn't want to, but only he could answer my question.I'd rather have left him alone.

He was like you and me until recentlyBut now front-line combat had turned him into a broken shellClothes disheveled, hair uncombed, hands shakingAn unlit cigarette hung from his quivering lips

But he was still a man with job to doAs I began speaking to him he summoned his composureAnd softly answered my question"Sorry, sir," he said "We're all out of the iPhone 4s."

Dr. Grumpy, I love your blog and read your posts almost everyday. I do have to say, however that I wish you hadn't made light of the "shellshock" and post traumatic stress disorder that is devastating the lives of so many of our military and their families. As the wife of a combat vet affect by PTSD, I have greatly enjoyed your posts on history and military topics and I hope that by commenting I can encourage you to post more carefully in the future.Thank you again for a great blog overall!

I'm guessing Sheri has never worked retail on the day after Thanksgiving. I worked at a clothing store for a few years and you came out of there with a nervous tick and very depressed with the future of human de-evolution. I saw a lady punch a guy to get the last pair of 42x32 Tommy Hillfiger pants for her kid. Was pretty sad, but I got a good chuckle when he came to complain to me and I told him he should work on keeping his left arm up to stop the right cross. Needless to say that was very near to my last day working there.

Oh you young people. Don't recall the "Cabbage Patch Doll" craze? Got a good laugh watching some store manager on TV (Not YouTube) swinging something at a horde of frantic shoppers. My then-husband was the asst. manager of a discount department store and suffered through that. NOT quite PTSD (I have military relatives with that and it is NOT funny) but I do admit he had a long stare after a frantic day.All jobs have their stresses/

I'm with the other posters concerning the PTSD. Yeah, it's serious, but so is cancer, AIDS, and every other thing that makes life suck. But when you can no longer appreciate humor, even dark - then you've got more problems than the person WITH the life-sucking ailment.

I'm in the surgical dept of the German hospital that receives the combat wounded from downrange - and you've haven't seen ugly or depressing or hopeless unless you've seen this crap we see. Humor is the only thing gets us thru the day sometimes.

He wasn't mocking PTSD victims (then you'd have something to complain about), so lighten up a little. Life CAN be worse and suck more than you can imagine. God, I'm sick of the political correctness police every time you open your mouth. DOC - the post was fine.

My boyfriend works for AT&T, and I can tell you that you are by far the least annoying type of customer come iphone release day. Anyone that would rather leave him alone is okay in his book. The people that show up at 8 pm and start yelling because there are no phones left and they "DESERVE" a phone are the ones that make him stabby.

He went in at 6:30 that morning and came home at 9:30 that night. Good times!

Welcome to my whining!

This blog is entirely for entertainment purposes. All posts about patients may be fictional, or be my experience, or were submitted by a reader, or any combination of the above. Factual statements may or may not be accurate.

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